It will host a maximum of 10 people who will be able to shoot movies, do research and relax as if they were in a hotel. It is called "Orbital Reef" and will be a space station for tourists and researchers.
A private space station for tourists and researchers: this is the ambitious project of Blue Origin, unveiled by Jeff Bezos. It is "Orbital Reef", a "mixed-use business park", as stated in the promotional material, which will accommodate up to a maximum of ten people. The area will be large about 2790 square meters and, the idea of the founder of Amazon is to realize it by 2030. Once completed, a number of activities can be carried out in the facility, such as making films in microgravity, doing research or even just hosting travelers who want to relax in an extraterrestrial hotel.
The Private Space Station Project
To build the private orbiting space station, the company Blue Origin will work in partnership with Sierra Space and Boeing. Cost of the project? An astronomical figure that company executives have not yet wanted to estimate. Jeff Bezos seems to have allocated for the operation a billion dollars, equal to 860 million euros. The facility will reach low Earth orbit and inside will be accessible to space agencies, entrepreneurs, tourists, companies and investors who will be able to move into the living spaces and research labs.
Bezos and Nasa's project
The announcement of Blue Origin's project came as Nasa seeks proposals to replace the now 20-year-old International Space Station. Although funding for the station has been guaranteed until at least 2030, the outpost is in desperate need of repairs. Russian officials have already warned that their cosmonauts will no longer go to the Iss starting in 2025 because of fears that they could suffer serious accidents due to the outdated equipment.
In response, Nasa announced earlier this year that it plans to award $400 million to space companies that will engage with projects to help the space agency replace the Iss. Competition to receive the funding is ample; before Bezos, a partnership between Nanoracks, Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin also announced their plans to launch a space station into low orbit by 2027.
Blue Origin continues with its super galactic plans, not long ago it sent Star Trek's "Captain Kirk" actor William Shatner into space with its New Shepard spacecraft but, despite the original plans, competition remains high with Elon Musk's SpaceX which, instead, wants to build Teslas on Mars.
Stefania Bernardini